Women’s Beach Volleyball | May 06, 2023
GULF SHORES, Ala. – The third-seeded and No. 3-ranked USC beach volleyball team (30-5) defeated sixth-seeded No. 5-ranked Loyola Marymount (29-9) by a 3-1 count in the NCAA Championship quarterfinals at Gulf Beach Place on Saturday, May 6. The Women of Troy advance to the semifinals where they will face second-seeded TCU (37-2) at approximately 5:30 p.m. CT (3:30 PT) on ESPN2.
The Trojans reached 30 wins in a season for the sixth time and eliminated the Lions to improve to 27-0 all-time in meetings with LMU. USC goes to 25-4 all-time in NCAA tournament duals and to 32-8 in duals played on Gulf Shores sand. Trojan pairs are now 79-28 in individual matches at the championship and USC’s No. 1 pair goes to 24-0 all-time in the tournament.
LMU claimed the first point of the dual with a win at the No. 5 spot. There, Madi Firnett and Isabelle Tucker edged the Trojans’ duo of junior Olivia Bakos and freshman Gabby Walker in straight sets, 21-18, 21-18.
The Trojans equalized with a win from the No. 2 position where graduate Madison Shields and freshman Madison White went 24-22, 21-19 for a win over Kirstine Garder and Abbey Thorup to improve to 22-7 on the season.
Moments later, the Trojans took a 2-1 lead with a win at the top position when junior All-Americans Megan Kraft and Delaynie Maple collected their 17th straight victory to improve to 27-1 on the season with a win over Melanie Paul and Vilhelmiina Prihti, 25-23, 21-12. Their win pushes Trojan No. 1 pairs to 24-0 all-time in the NCAA championship.
With the lead in hand, both matches at the Nos. 3 and 4 positions went to three sets, but play was stopped for half an hour due to a nearby lightning strike. When play resumed, USC’s twin seniors Audrey Nourse and Nicole Nourse sealed the dual with a 21-19, 16-21, 15-10 win over Jacinda Ramirez and Isabelle Reffel at court three. The win moves the sisters’ record to 27-6 with an 89-16 all-time mark; now just two wins from matching the second-highest career record by a Trojan pair.
With the dual clinched, play was stopped at the No. 4 position where graduates Jenna Johnson and Ashlyn Rasnick-Pope split sets with Cassie Chinn and Chloe Hooker with a 21-23 loss in the first and a 21-10 win in the second. The two pairs were…
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